Google Local Listing Ads Debut

We’ll be upfront about something here: only companies in San Diego and San Francisco can currently take advantage of this offer. But Google’s rolling out something that should at some point help small businesses in a lot of places reach potential customers online.

Greg Sterling was introduced to an experiment called Google Local Listing Ads yesterday evening. They’re small, text-only ads of the sort Google often displays, only the trick is that they’re shown when people near a company’s physical location search for a type of business.

Moreover, as a help page states, ads are shown on Google.com and Google Maps, the first 30 days are free, you then only need to pay “[a] flat monthly fee based on your location and business category,” there are no bids or keywords to manage, and you can get a “[f]ull report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps.”

This is an interesting offering that should allow small businesses to compete in a pretty big arena.

If Google Local Listing Ads have caught your eye, Google’s inviting people to fill out a form in order to see when the program will be available in a given area.